Peyton Manning will happily sign a smaller contract so the Indianapolis Colts can use the cash to strengthen the team elsewhere.
Star quarterback asking for less money in order to build team
In a unique story in sport in general, not only the NFL, superstar quarterback Peyton Manning is offering to take less money in his next new deal in order for the Indianapolis Colts to use it to strengthen the team elsewhere.
Colts owner Jim Irsay has stated previously that he wanted to make the four-time league MVP the highest paid player in the NFL by handing him a five-year deal worth $100 million.
Negotiations over NFL contracts are often tricky, but this time it is a remarkable role reversal as it is the player who is trying to talk the team into paying him less money in order to benefit them as a whole.
Irsay and team president Bill Polian still seem keen to make a statement by making Manning the top earner in the NFL and building their team around him, but the veteran quarterback would prefer some of the money to be used elsewhere.
"While I appreciate Jim Irsay offering to make me the highest-paid player," Manning told
The Indianapolis Star "I told him I'd rather he save that money and keep whoever it is - Joe Addai, Charlie Johnson, whoever that may be.
Pay cut
"I'm willing to take less than they've offered if they are going to take that money to keep players we need to keep and go get other players.
"All I want is for them to have the cap and the cash to keep the players they want to keep and to sign other players."
It must be noted that it is not as though Manning will not be paid handsomely. He will still receive around the $18 million a year deal that Tom Brady picks up from his deal with the New England Patriots.
Manning knows that, at the age of 35, he is not getting any younger either and thinks the team must keep their best players and add a few others right now to try and get him more than the one Super Bowl title he has won so far.
With his two previous contracts, Manning has been equally flexible over payment whilst on the field he is amongst the best ever quarterbacks, especially given the way he runs the offense himself and calls his own plays from the huddle.
Injury worry
There are still some fears Manning will not be ready to play from the start of the season, though, as his recovery from neck surgery was hampered by the lockout not allowing him to have rehab from the team doctors that know him so well.
He will be doing everything to be on the field in September to continue his record regular-season starting streak of 208 games, and Colts coach Jim Caldwell is as impressed as ever with his determination.
"Like a professional, like he always does, in a first-class manner, work harder than any man on the planet to get himself ready faster than anybody, (but) he's not ready right now," Caldwell said.
"Nobody works any harder, nobody is more diligent, more dedicated and he certainly has great faith in our staff that works with him here and at some point in time he'll be ready to go and when that is, we'll turn him loose."
